As many a UC prognosticator has foretold, the UCaaS industry will continue consolidating this year as providers look to fill in gaps in services portfolios and expand market reach. This week we saw the first evidence of that, with the news that PGi is acquiring ReadyTalk.
PGi did not disclose financial details, but CEO Ted Schrafft told me by email that the company is working to close the deal this month.
Schrafft cited a number of reasons for bringing ReadyTalk into the fold. For one, ReadyTalk's deep SaaS experience and development strength will help PGi in its "continued journey from pure conferencing to SaaS and unified communications," he said. While the companies have similar audio, Web, and video conferencing portfolios, ReadyTalk recently introduced a full-featured voice service powered by BroadSoft. The service, called ReadyTalk Hosted Voice, also includes IM and presence capabilities (see related post, "From Cloud Conferences to Full-Fledged UC"). "Hosted Voice was one of the many assets that was appealing to PGi," Schrafft said.
Additionally, PGi found ReadyTalk's strong focus on the carrier channel a big draw, according to Schrafft. That ReadyTalk has built white-label capabilities into its platform and has a strong carrier emphasis fits neatly into PGi's 2017 plans for building its partner channel offerings, he explained. "We think ReadyTalk can help drive that key partner strategy forward."
PGi will formulate its integration plans over the next few months, and "does not intend to make any major decisions about branding or [the ReadyTalk] portfolio in the short term, Schrafft said. ReadyTalk CEO Dan King and CRO Scott King will not be joining PGi.
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